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(More customer reviews)Things have changed, it's a fact. And I know some people are not going to like it. Back when I first played Guitar Hero 2, all the way up through playing Rock Band 3 most of tonight with my brother, what I have always loved about all of these games is shredding on a tasty solo. Something entirely self-indulgent, and an obscene amount of fun. That being said, that is not what Rock Band 3 aimed for this time. The emphasis has shifted and is now on the entire band. One could argue as Rock Band was the first to come out with the drums / bass / vocal parts to create the band performance, the emphasis has always been on the band. But for me it always seemed like for the most part the vocals, drums and bass parts were all secondary to most of the songs that really have stand-out guitar parts. The selection of songs is indicative of a change in focus, from being the "guitar" game, to being the "band game." No where is this more obvious than in Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' I was looking forward to playing the two awesome guitar solos in it, but when playing the song, a lot of it has me either sitting through vocal / drum / keyboard sections, or playing very easy note sequences. The songs are more mellowed-out, more easily accessible to those people looking to play as a group. Some people will not like that, but I don't mind so much.
As far as songs go, I was disappointed to a certain extent. While we do get 'Free Bird,' 'The Beast and the Harlot,' and 'No One Knows,' as the other reviewer pointed out, those songs have been in previous Guitar Hero games. There are so many songs that would be so cool on Rock Band, but some of these are just recycled, and I'm not sure why. But since all of my downloaded songs carried over it really wasn't too big a deal. What we are really paying for in this game is the new ways in which songs play out, and the upgraded features the new software offers.
You know that feeling in a sequel where you're having fun, but it's a tentative kind of fun, where you're waiting to see or experience something that they changed from the previous game that you are really not going to like? That's how I felt for the first couple of hours while I was playing tonight. But I have to give Harmonix credit once again. It seems that they left everything that worked in Rock Band 2, and then added features that were lacking from that game. For instance, when playing a set I was always disappointed that the only song you could see your note streak on was the last of them. It's been changed now. Rock Band has taken a page out of Guitar Hero's book here, and made your song stats viewable between songs. They even offer breakdowns of every section of the song, as well as a breakdown of how many points you earned in what ways (ie keeping a streak, overdrive, sustained, etc.). On top of that, when you are playing a song with more than just yourself, it shows you how many points each player got individually, minus the combined overdrive effect, which is neat. And you can rate songs right after you play them, which is a nice feature when you have ~500 songs so sift through.
Solos are slightly different looking, not so much in your face anymore. Instead of the note track glowing glue, the edges of the track glow blue. Most of the time you won't even realize you're playing a solo until you notice it counting your percentage. Same thing with a new addition to overdrive. There are still the white-note sequences that earn you 25% of overdrive, but now there is also a new kind, where the edges of the note track will glow yellow, and for getting those parts perfectly you earn 50% overdrive automatically. I'm ambivalent on that point though. I didn't see as the overdrive needed changing, but it's definitely not something I'm complaining about.
Setlists can now be saved to be played whenever you want, and the filters for organizing or displaying songs has been greatly expanded (Artist, Album, Genre, Decade, Instrument, Pro Mode Difficulty, Keyboard Part, Rating, Alphabetical by song, etc). Some things have been altered a bit, but it takes a learning curve or just a few minutes. As with recent Guitar Hero games, you can now drop in or out of a song or set at any time, as well as change profiles during any menu screen, which is a really nice new addition to the Rock Band repertoire. Another little thing that I noticed was pausing during a song. We've all done it, and it seems to happen unavoidably when we have a streak going, we've all been there. Rock Band 3 has solved the issue, and it's incredibly simple. Guitar Hero: World Tour made it so when you unpause it gives you a few seconds to see what notes are coming, which was cool...but it was a frozen screen, and you had no clear idea of how fast the notes might come at you. With this game, when you unpause the song rewinds a few seconds, and while it doesn't let you replay notes, it scrolls a blank note chart for a few seconds so you can get the feel of the speed, and then you pick up right back where you left off. Awesome new addition to the game.
I think the only negative thing I can say about the game is that I miss the fun facts about bands that would display while the songs were loading. But again Harmonix won't even let me complain about that, because the reason they're gone is because loading times are insanely faster than they used to be. You pick your set, and within a few seconds the song is starting. I don't know how they pulled that off, but it's impressive. In fact, I think the only loading screen I've had so far was the first time I loaded the game, and the game was updating my downloadable songs. A+ for efficiency.
The only REAL complaint I can make is that the Pro Mode guitar controller isn't coming out for a couple more weeks (what's up with that, Madcatz?). But I can say this, I browsed the training tutorials for both Pro Guitar and Keyboard, and they are extensive. It really is an impressive accomplishment, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out when the guitar gets here.
The bottom line really is this: Even if you don't like any of the songs that come with Rock Band 3, you should still buy it to play your old songs with the news features, because it's so worth it.
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Rock Band 3 is the third main release in the iconic video game series that challenges gamers to live out their Rock & Roll fantasies together in a band situation, both locally and online. The game features an ever expanding song list from every era of Rock & Roll history, easy to pick up yet challenging addictive Note Highway gameplay, compatibility with earlier releases in the series and all platform-specific instrument controllers including most Guitar Hero controllers, extreme in-game character and band customization, and a slew of new features. These new features include: new setlist search functionality, the addition of 3-part harmonies and a keyboard peripheral and expanded play modes, including the advanced Pro Mode.
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